MEXICO CITY — Armed body snatchers stormed a funeral home in northern Mexico early Monday morning to steal the body of one of Mexico’s most feared drug lords after he was gunned down by Mexican marines outside of a baseball game.

The armed thugs took the corpse of Zetas cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano, an army special forces deserter who introduced brutal paramilitary tactics to Mexico’s ongoing drug war.

The brazen pre-dawn raid adds a bizarre twist to the highest profile take down in Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s six-year military campaign against organized crime.

Lazcano, aka “The Executioner,” was the most powerful drug lord to fall since Calderon took office in 2006. The United States had a $5 million bounty on Lazcano’s head while Mexico had a $2.3 million bounty of their own.

According to a statement released by the Mexican navy today, they received complaints about armed men at a baseball game Sunday in Progreso, Coahuila, a rural area 80 miles west of the Texas border near Loredo.

When a patrol arrived to check out the complaints, gunmen opened fire and tossed grenades at the marines.

In the ensuing firefight two gunmen were killed, but only today did the navy confirm that the fingerprints of one of the men belonged to Lazcano.

However, before the confirmation was even released, armed men stole the bodies of the two men out of the funeral home where they were being held.